It is almost four years since a series of papers on Naval Aviation was presented to the Royal Aeronautical Society in the full day session held on 7th May 1947. The first paper in that series, “Technical Problems of the Design of Naval Aircraft,” read by W. S. Farren, stated the fundamental problems clearly.

During the intervening years, the general trends in aerodynamic and power plant development have been reflected in the design of carrier-borne aircraft and are beginning to stabilise into a recognisable pattern. Thus, turbo jet and turbo-propeller engines are now accepted for Service use, there has been general aerodynamic improvement including the suppression of drag arising from the carriage of stores, and it is normal to find that prototypes are mounted on a nose-wheel type undercarriage.

The rational estimation and derivation of aerodynamic loading data is becoming of rapidly increasing importance in the design of modern aircraft. The great advances made in aircraft performance during the 1939-45 War, together with the generally detrimental effect of compressibility upon stressing loads, have combined to make the task of the structural designer much more difficult. A few years ago, the loads resulting from the often arbitrary stressing cases of A.P.970 (Ministry of Supply Air Publication 970, Design Requirements for Aeroplanes for the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy) were of relatively minor significance and furthermore, any inaccuracies in their estimation and derivation were covered almost always by the ultimate factor if the estimate were on the low side, while if the loads were conservative, the weight penalties and structural difficulties involved were small.

These notes are intended to summarise for the benefit of aeronautical students the basic requirements of nose-wheel steering hydraulic systems. The various factors which have to be considered are listed and representative solutions given.